Hearing the Falconer #35 ~ 22-Apr-2019 ~ The Green New Deal: Part 8

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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22-April-2019: The Green New Deal, Part 8
House Resolution 109: The Green New Deal
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From news reports I have gotten the impression the Green New Deal is too extreme. Let's take a look at it and find out for ourselves.

House Resolution 109 has the title “Recognizing the duty of the Federal Government to create a Green New Deal.”

This resolution starts with 7 “Whereas's” and then moves into 4 “Resolved's.” Recently we looked at the second "Resolved." Now let's look at the third and fourth "Resolved's."

The third “Resolved” calls for the Green New Deal to be developed transparently and in partnership with many groups such as “frontline and vulnerable communities,” businesses, labor unions, and academia. I certainly agree with this. The more groups we involve in this initiative the more likely we will be to get the best ideas and the more likely we will be to succeed.

In the fourth resolved we get into some more details of the Green New Deal. For example: “ensuring that the Federal Government takes into account the complete environmental and social costs and impacts of emissions....”

This is important because it addresses a serious market failure that can threaten our society. If companies can produce profits in some way that results in dangerous emissions BUT the costs of dealing with the results of those emissions falls on someone else in society, or on the government, then the free market is not really working like it is supposed to. Free markets should select those activities that result in profits after ALL costs are accounted for. If profits are taken by one entity while losses are paid by another then we could end up rewarding people for doing things that are actually a net loss for society.

Here is another detail in the fourth “Resolved:” “providing resources, training, and high-quality education, including higher education, to all people of the United States....” This one will be a tough challenge but I think it is a worthy goal. We will have to figure out how to pay for providing higher education to everyone in the United States. This might be a case where we need to start slow and focus first on increasing opportunities rather than providing them to everyone overnight.

The fourth “Resolved” also calls for “making public investments in the research and development of new clean and renewable energy technologies and industries” and “directing investments to spur economic development....” I am a big believer in public investments and in encouraging investments that will drive growth. The devil is always in the details but I am in full agreement with the principle expressed here.

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Here is another “Resolved” that might be tough: “guaranteeing a job with a family-sustaining wage, adequate family and medical leave, paid vacations, and retirement security to all people of the United States....” This one might be tough, but, in a way, are we already doing part of this. When I was a boy my father was disabled and got a monthly check from the government through Social Security. We were poor but we had enough to live. So, if the government is already supplying the MONEY to people who need help why would it be impossible to also supply a JOB along with that money? I think we might be able to figure out a way to do that.

The last “Resolved” we will consider is “providing all people of the United States with - high-quality health care; affordable, safe, and adequate housing; economic security; and clean water, clean air, healthy and affordable food, and access to nature.” This is a beautiful dream. I would not promise the American people we can achieve this tomorrow, or next year, or even in the next decade, but I have no problem with it as a long term goal to keep us moving in the right direction.

In conclusion, as a political moderate, I think the Green New Deal sometimes goes too far where it seems to be promising things in the short term that we are unlikely to achieve. If we can change those promises to statements of the direction we want to move in over time then I find myself pretty much in agreement with the Green New Deal as, partly an expression of immediate goals, and partly an expression of long-range vision.

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The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

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Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway